Shadows: Part 1
by gamewriter2014
Summary: After a "coincidental" meeting with the Star Fox team; Samus Aran, Anthony Higgs, and Madeline Bergman must work with them in order to end a threat both are familiar with; the Aparoids and Metroids. Yet it seems there are many things unknown between the new group including who is the person in the shadows that seems to follow them that causes some distrust.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: The Messaged Meetings

Samus sat down relived after a long day of hunting. Earlier she had been asked to come to new colony to fend off the Space Pirate problem there which all they got was two waves of Space Pirates and ten waves of kids wanting a demonstration of how ice missiles worked in her suit's arm cannon. At first the kids were just curious and Samus didn't mind it but then they started to ask to watch it over and over again which would have depleted her missile supply. Her AI, Adam, wasn't much help on it either, all he did was talk about how she could've went and amuse them with a showcase of plasma beams. Things were so different than they were a few months back for Samus.

Then she was just the bounty hunter that saved the galaxy from pirate and metroid invasions and no one seemed to care almost. Now all Samus ever got was constant attention from people like civilians to even soldiers just because she and her newfound AI Adam together stopped the plans of the Sa-X (the X parasite version of Samus) from spreading throughout the different Galactic Federation regions. Although in the process there was no choice but to destroy the research facility to keep that from happening which did anger the Federation's Chairmen until Samus' old friend, Anthony Higgs, helped prove the good reasons why it should have been destroyed in the first place.

"Is there something you want to say, lady?" Adam said to her through her helmet's com.

"Not right now, I was just thinking about things that have happened" Samus gave as her reply.

Samus paused for a moment to think why he would pop the question right then.

"Wait, why do you ask?"

The AI Adam seemed to think too before speaking.

"Well you seem to be lost in space like you've been ever since the X parasite incident ended and I would assume you would have something to say after a long day like yours"

Samus sat there thinking if it was wise to talk about her thoughts to an AI version of her old commander even though she never really did address ideas too often. She thought of something to say just to please him but nothing came to mind that wasn't related to the real Adam.

"Well, haven't you thought about why there are many enemies that always try to copy me and try to spread through the galaxy? There was Phazon with Dark Samus that was once Metroid Prime and then the X parasite everyone's talking about with Sa-X who wasn't as successful as Dark Samus though"

Adam went silent and left Samus in wait. It was possibly two minutes until he finally could find something to say.

"Yes it seems they were both too familiar in styles of invasion I'm afraid. I can't seem to find if they were related at all in any case"

Now Samus thought about it too but wasn't far in thought when Adam added in.

"What I'll like to tell you, lady, is that Anthony seems to have requested to meet you if you have the time tomorrow evening at Daiban"

Samus repeated what he said in her head. Anthony wanted to see her? They haven't talked in years so it would have made sense why he would want to talk; just why he wanted to meet her made no sense.

"Send a message back to him saying I'll be on my way as soon as I can and that he can send a message to the specific point to meet at."

"Got that, I'm sending it now"

Samus got up from her seat knowing that rest would have to wait until later. Something must have been on Anthony's mind for him to ask her to meet him.

Fox and Slippy were in the middle of playing one of Slippy's video games in two separate hand held devices in "multiplayer mode" with Krystal and Falco on the side cheering them both on.

"Come on Fox, you can't lose to Slippy like this! He's got to be one of the easiest people to beat in all of Lylat!" Falco said insulting Slippy like his usual.

"Don't worry Slippy, Falco forgets that you've practiced this game all day yesterday just for this match!" Krystal whispered to Slippy cheering him a bit.

"Hey I thought you in for Fox!"

"It's just for today Falco"

"Riiigghht"

Fox just ignored the two and kept pressing the different buttons to fly the several-bit _"Arwing"_ trying to find where Slippy's ship was on the map and shoot him down to win. Slippy was in the middle of finding Fox's ship too hoping just this once to win something that didn't include a science fair in it. They both were, by coincidence, behind one another so when they both did a U-turn they ended up crashing into one another making them both lose the game.

"What was that? I thought it wasn't possible for two losers!"

"Aww… all that practicing for waste"

"Hey that was no fair! I call a rematch!"

They were so loud Peppy poked in the room to see what was going on only to see them all crowding around a video game.

"What are you guys doing in here? I thought you all said that you guys were helping out in the Hangar Bay!"

The four looked away from the game realizing that they had just been caught.

"Oh, uh, hi, Peppy, we didn't see you there before"

Peppy stood there arms crossed the way he did when he expected something from them.

"I know! The last person to the hangar has to verse Bill next round!" Falco screamed then ran out past Peppy followed by Krystal and Slippy.

"Fox, hold on for a second"

Fox stopped from following the others and stood still. What was it now? Another lecture about how he should be more like his father? He had those plenty enough.

"I was wondering where you were. Earlier someone sent a message straight to you and named himself Adam Malkovich. Apparently he claims he has information to you regarding James"

Fox didn't know anyone name Adam Malkovich. In fact he had no idea why someone had anything about his father, James.

"Uh, thanks Peppy. I'll go meet this person later or just message him if I have to"

He was about to leave when Peppy stopped him again.

"Fox you haven't been going around asking people about the incident on Venom have you?"

Fox stood there unsure on what to say. Normally if he said no to these things Peppy would go on and on about it until Fox's ears fell off.

"Not lately, I stopped after Sauria. There was no point after that." Fox said hoping for the best.

"Okay, go catch up with the others. I have work to do too." Peppy just said and walked away.

All Fox had to think was how easy that went. Instead of heading to the hangar where the others were, Fox went straight for his room to find exactly what this Adam wanted.


	2. Chapter 2

p class="MsoNormal" Chapter 2: Meetings in a Capital/p  
p class="MsoNormal" Samus walked around the Daiban city's park wearing something other than her suit knowing that it was probably better than walking around the Federation's capital in a Power Suit. At the same time Samus really did not want to drag attention while she was meeting her old friend so she chose to meet in traditional Federation green uniform color. It must've worked since no one knew that she was indeed Samus Aran walking around the capital. Samus wasn't the only one changing colors, the sky changed from the light blue color to a dark orange as the sun set behind all the glass buildings in the city. She had been looking for Anthony for an estimate of two and a quarter hours, but he was nowhere to be seen./p  
p class="MsoNormal" How could someone arrange a meeting and not appear at all? Samus stopped at the park's river bridge and leaned on the rails. She was lost in thought when a familiar voice came./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Hey Princess, got you lost didn't I?"/p  
p class="MsoNormal" Samus turned to see that indeed it was Anthony Higgs right behind her./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Long time no see?"/p  
p class="MsoNormal""Pretty much"/p  
p class="MsoNormal" She smiled at that. Anthony was the only person Samus knew that could make her laugh or smile. It always seemed he couldn't help himself but be silly at certain times. Samus remembered what she came for instead of smiles and went back to seriousness./p  
p class="MsoNormal""So what was it you wanted to see me for Anthony?"/p  
p class="MsoNormal" Anthony walked to the rails and leaned on them too looking at the building in the distance that you could compare to a dorsal fin on a dolphin./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Remember the Bottle Ship? Remember how I had asked you how you felt about Commander Adam Malkovich? You had said you could remember that time when we were on an important mission to save innocent lives on the passenger ship when the thruster malfunctioned. Adam was about to give the order to detach that thruster even with his brother, Ian, on board when you were confident that you could reach him in time to save him"/p  
p class="MsoNormal""He didn't give me the order"/p  
p class="MsoNormal""Yes and he had the thrusters detached with his brother still onboard and met fate when it overloaded and exploded"/p  
p class="MsoNormal" Samus recounted that day. Afterward she had been very upset with Adam and her old opinion changed about him. Not too long after she had left the Federation to become the Bounty Hunter she was that day./p  
p class="MsoNormal""So what's the point of bringing this up? I have no clue what it is you want, Anthony"/p  
p class="MsoNormal""Samus, on the Bottle Ship you were that last to see Adam right?"/p  
p class="MsoNormal""Yeah, he went to Sector Zero where Metriods were being kept and did damage to the place so the emergency protocol would detach from the ship to self detonate, with him in it"/p  
p class="MsoNormal" Anthony could see Samus felt sorrier than ever about Adam. The same was for him when he heard about it and the fact he was the only survivor of Platoon Seven. He wondered if it was the right time to tell Samus./p  
p class="MsoNormal""So princess, there's something I was meaning to tell you last time we saw each other about that"/p  
p class="MsoNormal""What do you mean?"/p  
p class="MsoNormal""When I was trying to stop the Bottle Ship from moving I was able to see that as Sector Zero was ejecting and so was an emergency pod that was installed in case anyone was trapped inside that sector"/p  
p class="MsoNormal""Are you sure about that Anthony? It was years back"/p  
p class="MsoNormal""Not as long as you try to make it sound like. Ever since we returned after that mission I have been tracking it with the help Madeline Bergman. Remember her? She was willing to help after losing Melissa"/p  
p class="MsoNormal""I remember, she was very depressed after that whole business"/p  
p class="MsoNormal""Indeed, Madeline even said she was willing to help so that way no one else had to lose their Melissa"/p  
p class="MsoNormal" Samus looked out to the buildings and thought about it. It could be possible he could've escaped since she couldn't see Sector Zero self detonate where she had been. If it was true, she would want to see him again and thank him for what he did; for her and the Federation. Then she finalized that she had to know where he was./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Where is it you found him at?"/p  
p class="MsoNormal" Anthony pulled out a little device out of his pocket and had it turn on a little hologram of a solar system./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Here, a whole new galaxy, and a whole new system. The first one I've seen with a dwarf star though. If what Madeline found was right he'll be on this planet" he pointed to a green and blue planet that was similar to the human home planet, Earth./p  
p class="MsoNormal""There?"/p  
p class="MsoNormal""There, I was planning on heading out there, without Federation tracking of course so Madeline will tag along and make sure we aren't followed"/p  
p class="MsoNormal""Let me get us there, I've got a new gunship faster than my last one that should get us there. Plus the Federation knows I travel planet-to-planet which means we won't have too much of a problem. Just mind my AI, Adam. I'll have to explain to him about this"/p  
p class="MsoNormal""Huh, missed him so much you replaced him with an AI with the same mind. That might be an interesting story to tell the real one"/p  
p class="MsoNormal" Samus just ignored him. All there was to think about was the possibility of Adam being out there in an unknown galaxy. Would it be possible he was truly there?/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in right 6.5in;" align="center"*/p  
p class="MsoNormal" Fox wandered around Corneria City with Krystal in tow for his rendezvous point with this Adam. He couldn't be sure that this guy would be friendly so he brought Krystal along (just because she was telepathic) to make sure he had no murderous thoughts going on in his head. They both had their Blasters prepped in case he was dangerous and Krystal convinced Fox to bring a couple of bandages for a weird reason./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Are you sure about this Fox? You know how Peppy will be when he finds out" Krystal whispered to see if Fox would turn back./p  
p class="MsoNormal""I know Krystal, it's just this guy keeps sending requests to meet me, even when we're all asleep! It's just gotten to the annoying level where I have to see what he wants from me"/p  
p class="MsoNormal" Krystal sighed and let her eyes wander around the city. There was no way to change his mind now that this guy kept bothering him. Maybe she shouldn't worry, maybe if this Adam knew something about Fox's dad he could know why Cerinia was destroyed years ago. Just like Fox, she stopped searching for answers after Sauria, yet now her search started again with this unknown Adam. Fox tugged on her sleeve when she was almost ready to walk into a hole in the ground she didn't see when she zoned out./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Careful Krystal, you don't want to fall down a hole around here"/p  
p class="MsoNormal" Krystal looked around seeing why; while she was too busy thinking they had walked to the less occupied part of the city where pretty much no one would enjoy visiting. And all the holes were from parts of the cement crumbling away and showed the sewers below. Krystal was disgusted and preferred to stay near Fox./p  
p class="MsoNormal""So where is it we are seeing this guy exactly? He doesn't want to meet you in the sewer does he?"/p  
p class="MsoNormal""Fortunately not there, instead a bar around that corner where a lot of gangs hang out"/p  
p class="MsoNormal""Uh, I think I'll take the sewer any day"/p  
p class="MsoNormal" Fox had to agree with her on that part, the only person they knew who wouldn't mind the bar at all would be Falco, but he was once part of a gang so of course. When they walked round the corner they saw that the only nice thing that was on that street was in fact the only occupied building, the bar. They both were unsure about entering the building but knew this was the only way to meet Adam. By fortune it was only one group there besides the two inside the place bothering the bar tender until she was nearly on her last nerve. It must've been relief to her that there were different people that seemed much nicer than the group before./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Good day, what can I do for you?' she said trying to smile to them./p  
p class="MsoNormal" Krystal looked at the bar tender; it was obvious she wasn't enjoying her job or the crowd. It was a guess she was purposely keeping the group of men drunk for that./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Is there an Adam Malkovich here?"/p  
p class="MsoNormal""You mean the hood Adam? Strange guy I must say, ever since he came 'round there's been less of a crowd to handle," she looked as though she was thankful on that part, "Yeah he's over in that corner if you're looking for him" she pointed to a dark corner where a hooded figure sat rolling an odd round coin on the table./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Thank you"/p  
p class="MsoNormal" Fox and Krystal left the lady to manage the drunken crowd while they headed to the hooded figure./p  
p class="MsoNormal""So you're Adam Malkovich right?"/p  
p class="MsoNormal" The figure looked taking off his hood scaring both Fox and Krystal with the fact that he wasn't anything from Lylat./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Yes I am, you can sit down you know. I don't own the table"/p  
p class="MsoNormal" The two hesitated unsure what a good decision around him was. They figured that they should sit down since he seemed to want them to./p  
p class="MsoNormal""What is it you want? I hope you know you've been bugging us all day"/p  
p class="MsoNormal""Sorry about that, I was trying to get your attention the quickest way possible. And now that you're here I'll start under one condition."/p  
p class="MsoNormal""What?"/p  
p class="MsoNormal""I don't exist to anyone else besides you two. I wouldn't want the idea of my existence disturbing your life styles."/p  
p class="MsoNormal""Uh okay"/p  
p class="MsoNormal" Adam flipped his coin in the air and caught it again almost for show./p  
p class="MsoNormal""This coin here is one of the few things I have left from where I come from, and it's not currency. It used to be part of a medal I had earned as a Commander of Platoon Seven part of the Galactic Federation far from where your Lylat is. The thing is the last time I was there my platoon and I went to find survivors aboard an illegal research facility. What had happened was the scientists were attempting to create bio-weapons from remains of the Federation's threats like Space Pirates, Zebesians, and metriods."/p  
p class="MsoNormal""Excuse me, but what exactly are metriods?"/p  
p class="MsoNormal""Anyone's nightmare, they look like they have jellyfish heads and have two small claws plus two larger ones underneath. Don't think they're friendly for one second, the reason why they're a threat is because they attach to any living source and drain all life energy away leaving their victim dead but them stronger. For a long time we were able to destroy them with normal ice weapons since it was their only weakness, but at that research facility the scientists removed their ice weakness making them almost invincible to our weapons. It was luck that all the metriods were still in a place called Sector Zero unmarked on the facility's map. I knew there was an emergency system installed into the sector so that if a certain amount of damage was done it would detach and explode away from the facility."/p  
p class="MsoNormal""So you made those metriods go crazy and do damage to the place?"/p  
p class="MsoNormal""No, I went inside to do so"/p  
p class="MsoNormal""Wait if you were inside how are you still here?/p  
p class="MsoNormal""Won't your platoon have tried to stop you?"/p  
p class="MsoNormal" Adam looked at the medal for a bit and remembered one person who would've sounded like them./p  
p class="MsoNormal"My platoon was killed off one-by-one by someone hired to kill anyone who knew the purpose of the research facility. I was the only one remaining along with one old member who had left before, and yes, she didn't agree with me going in there"/p  
p class="MsoNormal""Who is 'she'?"/p  
p class="MsoNormal""Samus, she used to be part of the platoon. After one of the missions that I commanded she had left and became a Bounty Hunter, a good one at that. It was Samus that was hired in the first place to destroy the metriods and she was non-stop wanting to go in and destroy the metriods herself"/p  
p class="MsoNormal""Not to bother you with so many questions, but why did Samus want to exterminate them so badly?"/p  
p class="MsoNormal" Adam paused and thought if the two really needed to know about Samus. He was already talking about her so there was no choice./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Back when Samus was a little girl the colony her family was living on was attacked by Space Pirates and only she survived. She was taken up by the Chozo who many years later were attacked by Space Pirates and their home planet was used to perform tests on the metroid for their use. That was one of the main reasons why she had been chosen to do the job"/p  
p class="MsoNormal" Krystal felt sympathy for this Samus. They both were only survivors to their destroyed homes./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Okay so you have told us one of the oddest stories I've heard, now what's the real point here?" Fox said not understanding the point./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Let me tell you exactly then"/p  
p class="MsoNormal" /p 


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Encounter

Adam proceeded to walk into the sector as the secondary lock closed and entered the bright sector. This sector was smaller than the others but had large rows of glass tubes containing metriods inside them that seemed calm with no bother or sign of destruction in sight. He knew what he had to do; he had to do enough damage to the place to engage the security protocol to destroy all the metriods. He made sure that his Freeze Gun was charged and fired at one of the tubes turning the insides into ice and angering the metriod contained inside it. The whole place started to shake along with a warning that Sector Zero was detaching.

All seemed fine until the frozen metroid let out a high-pitched scream piercing Adam's ears and broke through its frozen prison. Adam held his gun ready at the metriod to prevent it from escaping. The metroid ignored him and continued to fly away to an emergency shuttle door. Somehow it managed to know how to open it.

"Great, they also added intelligence to them" Adam whispered to himself.

He wasted no time and chased after it into the shuttle. He took a few shots at it hoping it would at least stun it but nothing happened. The metroid finally found him a threat and released an even higher high-pitched scream and activated the doors to close. Adam's ears couldn't take the pain from the metroid and fell to his knees from the constant ringing. Immediately the shuttle made a sudden and quick jolt throwing Adam to the wall knocking him out and damaging the metroid.

Adam could hear footsteps approaching closer and closer but he couldn't figure whose it was that was coming. No matter how hard he tried he couldn't even open his eyes or move. Whoever it was they were trying to say something but it was a little fuzzy at the start.

"I said are you okay? Hello?" someone said.

There was a long silence as if this person was thinking for a moment then the sound of fading footsteps showing they were walking away. Adam decided to try to make himself move before that person came back around since he could've been an enemy mistaking him for someone else. He ached a little, but ignored it and managed to support himself up on something. Slowly he had vision regained and could see that what he was using part of what was left of the door that had been broken off. There was certainly a lot of damage done around him, and a distinct rip on the ceiling above.

The rip seemed like an animal was trying to get in desperately, or out. Was it the Metriod? It could have been the person from earlier since he never did see who it was. The confusing fact was that there was a thick metal plating that even a metriod couldn't penetrate, so how could it have been the metriod? There was no use on staying there forever to find out since whatever it was could come back any moment to finish the job.

Adam picked up his gun, which was left on the ground, and climbed through the destroyed doorway to see that in fact the shuttle crashed into a forested area. There was no where that seemed familiar like this place, there wasn't even any type of bird or animal he knew in this place; it was all strange land to him.

"Huh, must be a new colony" he assumed looking around once again just to remember if he did see this place before.

Adam only traveled about two inches when someone screamed, "Watch out!" and did the "classic" save by jumping wherever they came from and grabbing him to get him out of the way. They both recovered the landing just in time to see an odd, purple, bug-like thing crash into the already damaged shuttle getting it's sharp front legs stuck in the thick metal. Adam turned to see who exactly just saved him and nearly fainted to see that it was indeed a fox wearing sunglasses. The fox looked at him too and saw his shocked expression feeling a little awkward with the whole scene.

"Uh, hello then. Now if you understand me you'll want to run from that thing" the fox said pointing towards the odd thing trying to get its self free.

Adam backed away from the both unsure on who was the real enemy on this really strange situation.

"Who are you? And exactly how do you speak English?" Adam asked calmly and slowly backing away.

"Huh? What are you talking about? We're speaking Cornerian not this English. Listen I'm not joking you have to run from that freaking Apariod alright?"

Adam looked behind the fox and saw the earlier Metriod sneaking up behind him.

"Alright then, why don't you run from that Metriod also?"

The fox looked behind and was startled by the Metriod. The both had enemies to take care of before it got real nasty.

Fox and Krystal sat trying to understand the whole story so far.

"Do you see my point yet?" Adam asked the two waiting for further questions.

"Well sort of, but what happened afterward? And when was this again?" Fox had hoped that the mention of the Apariod was either made-up or years ago.

"What happened next I'll tell another time, and this was nearly two months ago"

"I'm sorry, but I think you must have this all wrong. The Apariods were destroyed one year ago by us; you must have counted wrong or something" Krystal implied.

"Sadly it has been two months. And I do know that you had destroyed them in the first place; that's why I wanted your attention, not some military company that'll do anything for money"

Adam got out of his seat and walked toward the door with his hood on. Krystal and Fox followed him out to see if there was something else he needed. At the counter the gang of monkeys watched them leave and started laughing.

"Ha! There's enough beer left for us!"

The crowd cheered at the knowledge the place was all theirs. The exhausted bartender looked at the crowd for more orders and screamed at the sight of what was a Metriod. The gang didn't even get to turn around when it attached its self on one of the tall monkeys. The rest tried to pull it off while all the poor lady could do was hide under the counter.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Departure Along With Trouble

Samus walked the docking bay enjoying the morning for the first time in awhile. It had been decided that she was going to get them to this new solar system in her new ship which was far different from her old Chozo one. Supposedly Anthony was going to act like he was just visiting her along with Madeline so there would be less suspicion about them leaving Federation space and abandoning work. Samus felt that a morning stroll would help make it look like she was just visiting the place. There were a few sights she actually enjoyed seeing: first of all the whole block the headquarters were on were all renovated to better withstand attacks if it were to happen, the streets were better kept than before and seemed to be five-star luxury streets, training grounds were also renovated to have more people on there, and organization on docking were better, surprisingly.

She walked along finally reaching her gunship she had painted orange just to be at least a little like the last one. Instead of Anthony waiting there an older gentleman was in an army commander uniform inspecting the gunship.

"Is there something I can do for you?" Samus asked getting his attention.

"Hm? Oh Samus there you are! The years have passed, no?"

Samus looked at him in confusion then remembered; he used to be commander of the fifth platoon that trained with hers when she was there.

"Commander Frank? I barely recognized you from age!"

He laughed for a little bit since he got that often.

"A lot of people say that. Anyway, how have you been doing ever since Adam passed?"

She didn't know what response to give to him. Samus was afraid to give away her ideas.

"Oh I see, not feeling like talking about it? I understand it no worry. Sorry to pain you but recently with all the new things going on I had been moved to Adam's old office. When I was settling down I had found something of his which was strange since I thought they long cleared the space. I wasn't wanting to throw it out so when I heard you where around I thought you'd want it" He handed Samus a picture frame that had a image of young Samus and Ian posing while Adam himself was in the background showing no interest for the camera.

"He still had this?" Samus wondered almost forgetting herself.

"Yes, and I trust you'll take care of it"

Samus nodded and studied it further. Anthony walked in with a red-haired woman only just noticing the commander in front of him.

"Commander Frank! Nice to see you haven't changed… too much" Anthony said in his usual happy mood.

"Morning Higgs, it's been a long time since I've seen the both of you together. Who's the woman?"

The woman stepped out and introduced herself for Anthony.

"I'm Madeline Bergman, I'm a friend"

"Wait one second, Madeline Bergman who was the research director on the Bottle Ship?"

"Yes, but I'm trying to erase that record"

"Good then, well I'll leave you guys alone to chat, so long then!"

He saluted them then walked away. Samus looked at Anthony and Madeline to make sure they really were ready. Madeline was the first to step aboard calling for the other two to follow. Samus came with Anthony then made sure that one noticed.

"Sure you want to come along Madeline?" Samus checked after boarding.

Madeline nodded then started setting up her computer in her passenger seat. Samus placed Adam's picture by her feet and was ready to depart. Anthony sat himself down and decided his time on the trip was to inspect his weaponry for safety plus killing boredom. While Samus flew the ship out he checked all the ammunition for almost an hour until it finally became boring. Madeline was too busy checking nearby signals in case an alert was sent out and found something else.

"Hey there's something currently going on that set an alarm. Apparently someone's broke into an office with something and is on the run"

"Does it say who? If it isn't us we should be in the clear" Samus said checking ship status.

"According to the reports the ship's not from Federation space and someone claimed that they might've seen a fox getaway"

"Huh, what's next, sarcastic falcons flying a ship? Come on foxes don't have fingers they could have been mistaken" Anthony laughed thinking it sounded silly.

Madeline went back into her search and frowned at her finding.

"Uh, Samus, I think we're going to get trouble. He's headed our way"

No sooner did something pass them along with Federation ships not far behind. Samus bit her tongue knowing that in fact there was trouble about them.

Slippy was in the maintenance room trying to find a problem that was starting to occur down there. He couldn't even see what or where it was. Suddenly he heard a loud racket from behind and assumed who it was.

"Falco I'm not falling for it! I mean it!"

The noise continued on with no pause.

"Falco I'm not joking!"

"Joking about what?" Falco said coming from the opposite direction of the noise.

"Wait if you're not making the noise then who is?"

Falco listened then shrugged.

"How am I supposed to know? Maybe if you check it out I bet you'll scream!"

Slippy wasn't going to take the insult this time and marched off to see what it was.

"Okay who's th-" Slippy stopped to see an jelly thing grabbing nearby pipes with its bloody claws.

Falco came to laugh at Slippy when he saw it too and stood in panic. The thing took notice and let out a scream trying to catch its new find. Falco and Slippy ran in fear until they reached the door and shut it panting. Peppy was standing there having no clue on what was wrong.

"What in the world are you two doing?"

Falco and Slippy looked up and tried to think of an excuse.

"Oh, uh, we were just shutting the door tight!"

"Because one of the gas pipes is leaking and you don't want to breathe that right?"

Peppy stared at them both, "It didn't look like there was a leak"

"Trust us!"

"There was!"

"Alright that's it what's behind there?" Peppy pushed the two aside and opened the door not seeing a problem.

"No wait don't go in there!" too late, Peppy went inside thinking they were just dramatizing things a bit too much and still didn't see anything.

"I don't see what's wrong at all"

Slippy and Falco looked and saw the jelly thing wasn't there.

"That's strange it was in here"

"What was in here?" Peppy looked around and still saw nothing.

Falco looked at one pipe and saw it was hiding there.

"Wait Peppy maybe you should come back out? Isn't there something you need to do?" Falco said alarming the jelly thing.

It let out another screech going after Falco. His reaction was to shut the door forgetting for a second Peppy was still inside. Slippy stood there terrified as dents were made into the door.

"Hey! This isn't funny you two!" Peppy yelled at them making them realize he was still in there.

"You get him!"

"No you should! You're the one who locked him out!"

Falco pouted and opened the door taking a lucky guess what he was grabbing. He pulled out the jelly claws by accident quickly throwing back in and finally getting Peppy. Slippy immediately shut the door with screeches behind it.

"You know what, I think I might've missed an hour of sleep" Peppy said before walking off.

"I think I did too" Falco agreed then took off.

Another dent was made on the door and Slippy just fainted right on the spot.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Forming of the True Enemy

Samus, Anthony, and Madeline were stuck in one serious situation for sure. What was assumed to be draw attention away from them was instead dragging it directly to them. There wasn't a reason to be silent, but the three were hoping for the "storm" to pass, or actually police. There was an incoming call and Samus signaled the other two to hide from the camera view.

"Samus Aran I believe, what is it you're out doing in this place?" A man, decorated in medals, said with the busy background behind.

"Sorry if I'm a bother; I was on my way to a job just like you seem to be" Samus calmly replied waiting for dismissal.

"This far out I would assume it's a colony problem unless I'm wrong"

"No you got it right"

The man did something out-of-view then came back and smiled.

"Well sorry to disrupt you, just be wary there's a criminal not too far"

"I take note" Samus shut the com off relaxed that the hard part was over.

"Let's continue on then. We wouldn't want to meet those guys again do we?" Madeline suggested getting comfortable in her seat again.

Samus agreed and sent her focus back to flying. Shortly there was an explosion nearby that was powerful enough to throw everyone out of their seats and the three weren't the only ones affected. Samus managed to get back in her seat to see that there was remains (barely) of one of the nearby Federation ships. Madeline saw too and looked back to her computer's screen that took fall damage.

"Oh no"

Anthony didn't take it as a good thing and went over to see what it was.

"Samus we need to get out now! Someone's using networks to cause devastating damage important computer systems apparently"

Samus looked out to see another explosion far off leading to the next.

"Keep eyes on it then!" she yelled setting the flight path as far as possible.

She was barely was able to get out in time before a fourth blast happened right next to them. Samus made sure they were within a safe area just for a time for breath from the whole scene. Madeline got back into the seat with relief from her worry.

"What was it that happened back there? Is this the whole Phazon incident all over once more?" Samus asked expecting her AI to answer. Nothing. Something was going on for sure; the AI Adam always answered, not be all silent like this.

"Hm, I really can't tell if it was or not. One thing for sure, it was planned the way it caught everyone off guard. How else?" Anthony answered not even noticing Samus' current concern.

"Just hope we aren't carrying a virus or something. Anyway we should be there about in an hour or close to it." Samus guessed deciding she would figure out what happened to her AI at a later time.

Anthony nodded then went to talking to Madeline. Samus tried to relax but worry ruined it. Was someone planning for them to come? If so, they needed to be ready for any surprise that came for them.

One day had passed for Fox since he met with Adam. Things became strange immediately after he got back. First of all; Falco and Slippy were getting along for the first time, Peppy was staying away from the area where the maintenance area was, and the bar Adam had been at had been attacked by what the same lady in there described as a flying jellyfish, it had to be a Metriod. It was odd for sure since Falco usually was teasing Slippy about his terrible combat skills and Peppy was always up and about, especially near the maintenance area checking on everything. Now all there was is Falco remaining near Slippy at all time being terrified of anything that came near and Peppy was staying near the bridge carrying a blaster with him. There was no point on asking what happened since there were things to do, besides, they could've just watched a horror movie and grown paranoid the time he was gone with Krystal.

That was all yesterday, Fox needed to focus for today. First thing they were supposed to do was to meet up with someone around the Sargasso region. In order to do so they had to bring their flagship, _Great Fox 2_ along for this one. If you wonder what happened to the last, we can just say that it may or may not have been crashed onto a base entrance. Fox stood, in the mean time, in front of a window viewing the meteoroid field outside thinking about everything going on. Krystal approached him doing the usual news giving thing they did around there.

"So Fox, I went ahead and checked the area for you. It looks like it's for sure near this area. Still can't see who it was"

"Good enough for me. By the way haven't you noticed how the others have been acting?"

"Of course, I just don't want to know since it might just be a spider issue or something"

"Huh, probably so. Well I'll be heading back for the bridge and see if Falco is still paranoid about everything"

Fox walked away to a hallway turn and made sure Krystal didn't follow. He was determined to see was it was about the maintenance room that made it avoidable. A few halls later he finally made it to the place only for nothing too exciting to happen like he expected. Fox sighed and continued on still not understanding what exactly was so scary. At the door he was able to see a few questionable dents and inside there were a couple of pipes that had, bite marks?

What was going on down here? There was nothing else beyond that point so Fox just turned around to leave. Maybe the whole story should be told by one of the three on what was down here. Instead there were obvious footsteps coming near that didn't sound too much like his. Fox took precaution and hid behind the door just in case it wasn't one of his friends, and he was right.

When he peeked out there were three unrecognizable shadows closing in. As they came near it sounded more of metal-on-metal and high heels than regular shoes. Who was it? Fox tried to peek out a little further only to nearly miss a shot from whoever it was, but that wasn't the last one. More came along and he knew that it was stupid to corner himself in a room so he had no choice but to fire back.

When there was a short pause Fox took advantage and hit someone for sure from sounds of someone in pain but he had no time to see who.

"Wait one second! Who the heck are you?" Fox yelled out as soon as he found a wall to hide behind.

The only reply was silence. Somehow he was going to figure out what was going on.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Misunderstanding

Madeline woke from her nap finding herself on the ground. She sat up noticing Samus asleep in her seat with Anthony also sleeping. "_So much for one hour to the place_" Madeline thought as she got up to see where they currently were. For some reason the view from the front window looked like an empty port of some sort and nothing else. She went up to the back of the ship to find her computer broken where she had previously placed it, "_Dang it, at least I thought ahead to bring the holograph projector along. Now where are we?_" Madeline thought as she brought out her holograph projector using it like her other computer.

Madeline scrolled up past lists and files she had trying to find her map representation wondering how many files she had on the device. After about quarter of an hour later she finally found it and tapped it's icon waiting for it to download the data from the ship wirelessly. Samus was waking up and noticed the light Madeline's holograph was emitting before noticing the outside herself. Samus turned her chair around to see Madeline's newly confused face as she kept making the thing rescan to reinsure something.

"What is it now? Did we accidently run into a carrier?" Samus asked waking Anthony in the process.

"Huh? What? What did I miss?" Anthony said too tired to notice the outside.

Madeline finished trying to recheck the location and ran over to show Samus.

"I'm not sure if this is a carrier, but it appears we are moving in an asteroid belt or something of that sort. If I'm right the indicator shows that we're inside a ship that could probably host the _Valhalla_ or _Olympus_, both at the same time possibly" she concluded pointing towards a shadow on the map.

"Well let's go find a friend that could help us out" Anthony said with a bit of sarcasm.

"Okay, I'll go ahead then. Follow if you want" Madeline headed out not even checking for safe pressures or air first.

"Wait, Madeline! He was being sarcastic!" Samus called out and followed grabbing Anthony with her out of his seat.

Madeline didn't stop to wait for them at all, instead she pressed on marveling the place around her. She almost lost the two behind when she passed through a door that was placed beneath a catwalk a high ways up. Madeline didn't stop to inspect and passed through with a quick glance continuing her walk for a long time having the two follow behind. Samus managed to catch up along with Anthony when they left the hangar far behind reaching an elevator.

"There must be someone on the bottom levels since maintenance is usually there" Madeline said looking at the different projected buttons finally pushing the very bottom one.

The other two could do nothing about it since she had already pressed the button causing the elevator to shut the doors and start moving downward. They were both thinking about if this was an abandoned ship or if this was a Federation trap to see where they were exactly heading. Madeline didn't seem to think on it too much as she pulled out her holograph projector again to find anything about the ship they were on. The elevator doors opened revealing the nearly exposed wiring showing it was indeed a maintenance area. Madeline walked out at a faster pace which made her high heels a little louder along with Samus and Anthony running along to stay with her. The place got darker and darker so eventually the projector served as a light.

Samus didn't like the silence surrounding them and felt glad that she had gone into her power suit mode back on the ship. She turned to see a small Metroid hovering by an open door as if it were watching something. By reflex, Samus took an open shot at it only realizing someone was poking their head around the door. The Metroid was shocked by her appearance and tried to fly away, she wasn't going to allow that to happen. Samus shot at it a little more missing every time in turn getting shot herself, but somehow it hurt more than it should have, what was going on?

Anthony pulled Samus out of the way from anymore shots since she was in too much shock to move. Madeline turned off her projector and tried to see if there were signs of who it was.

"Wait one second! Who the heck are you?" a voice yelled out almost tempting them to answer.

Madeline looked at them to see if they wanted to answer only to get indications to not.

"He doesn't know there was a Metroid nearby" Samus whispered to Anthony trying to explain herself.

"Why would that stupid thing try to attack?" Madeline yelled a little too loud to be heard by the other person.

"_What did you call me?_" the voice exclaimed sounding very offended.

Samus looked at the wall and saw the Metroid again, or at least it's reflection. This time it wasn't going to get away, so to insure that Samus jumped out in the open and fired at it hitting the nearby wall instead. She barely dodged a shot and quickly saw who it came from. Shocked at what it was, Samus went back to the cover wide-eyed before whispering to the rest what it was.

"I'm going delusional already, that last shot came from-" Samus paused and tried to think it over.

"What was it?" Madeline asked desperate to know.

"Two separate people, a fox and a rabbit" Samus finished getting the weird eye from the other two.

"What the world?" Anthony muttered to himself pretty much saying what they all were thinking.

Fox was very insulted by that point by what they had called him. "_Why would that stupid thing try to attack?_" he repeated in his head, "_I know why, because you just shot at me thanks a lot! And whoever you are, you certainly don't check before shooting for anything, or did they know?_" he wondered looking for anything that could show what they were up to. Shots were fired at the wall he was behind scorching it to near char. Fox wasn't going to play the hiding game any longer, risking himself by jumping out in the open to make more clear shots. Just when he was about to shoot someone else had missing the silhouette down the hall by only a little.

Fox hid back behind the wall and saw no other than Peppy join him.

"_Peppy_? What are you doing here?" Fox nearly yelled nearly surprised that he was actually down there.

"What? I was in the bridge when Rob said there was an odd ship docked with us, oh and Krystal said you were in trouble" Peppy said back not sure why Fox was so excited.

_Krystal,_ of _course_ she would've sensed it. He wasn't so sure it was a good thing as much as a bad thing in this case judging that he had no clue who and how many they were dealing with exactly. There was no time to think about that, Fox knew that there were at least three people onboard that could be possibly trying to get around them or worse, blow them all up. The very thought was frightening enough to force him to actually run from cover and head to where these people were. Of course Peppy tried to stop him but it was too late, Fox just ran into a death wish zone.

Fox ignored him quickly reaching where they were, well, were. No one was there strangely nearly causing a panic that they had gone around him most likely advancing to the bridge at that very moment. Not everyone was gone; someone tried to hit Fox behind completely missing causing whoever it was to fall forward from the force of the object they were using. Fox reacted fast enough to catch this person and pin them to the wall before they could get up and run. He looked over to see that indeed it was Slippy's tool box that was missing for some time that was thrown then looked back to see a panicking red haired human trying to get herself free.

Before the two could get anymore glimpses of each other another person came from behind holding a gun to Fox's head as a threat.

"I wouldn't mind if you let the lady go. It isn't how you treat one after all" the person demanded in a weird manner that was strangely less defensive than it should've sounded.

Fox didn't release her that moment, nor did he turn to the demander knowing his head could be blown off if he did. He remained still wondering where Peppy was not reacting to this situation currently going on. He looked at the woman who stopped her panic and stared up at the ceiling in fright. What was it?


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Adam's Appearance

Krystal stood by one of the bridge's computers worrying about Fox _and _Peppy down in maintenance. She had felt Fox in trouble and ran up there to tell the others when Peppy instructed her to stay there while he went to make sure. Even then she was still worried since it was about a couple years since Peppy had _actually_ handled a weapon for combat and there was a reason he no longer joined them in missions. Krystal paced back in forth deciding if it was wise to disobey Peppy's instruction to not go down there or if it was best to stay in the bridge. There was trouble just thinking from the noise that the game Falco and Slippy were playing was making like chip tone battle music to miniature explosions.

"Hey can you guys tone it down?" Krystal asked politely.

"Hold on just one sec! I'm about to finally win this game against Falco!"

"In your dreams Slippy, _I'm_ about to win!"

"Hey! That's not nice!"

Krystal became frustrated with the two so she went over and unplugged the cord that connected their two game devices together for the game. The two instantly noticed becoming frustrated themselves on why she had just ended their game.

"How can you both just sit there while Fox and Peppy could be in serious trouble right now?" Krystal pressured on them to make them feel shameful.

"Well sorry, they've got themselves, no need for us to worry. Now why don't you let us get back to the game?" Falco proceeded to try to plug the game again when Krystal snatched the device away from him.

"This isn't funny Falco! They're in trouble no doubt, neither one of them has come back yet!" Krystal snapped at Falco.

"What are we supposed to do? We were told to stay up here directly" Slippy responded for Falco.

"Follow a new directive then" a monotone voice said nearly giving everyone a heart attack.

Krystal recognized the voice from somewhere before, yet she couldn't remember where in time before Falco and Slippy started to point their blasters towards the main door. To her shock it was the Adam that had requested to meet Fox the day before standing there not even worried that he was in danger of being shot by two people. Adam stepped even closer to them with not even a single care or sign about the two with no idea who he was.

"I've figured you have more than just intruders that had snuck onboard your ship thanks to three of your friends. It seems that our worst fears have become true and are worse than ever" Adam said towards Krystal confusing the other two on how she knew him.

"How did you get onboard? I never saw you at all!" Krystal stepped forward talking to Adam in a way to show her suspicion to him.

"Now's not the time, to make things worse for me it appears Samus had accidentally ended up on board for some reason and managed to get herself in trouble"

"Samus?_ Her?_ Oh no, you mean she's in trouble wi-with Fox? Oh no, this isn't good" Krystal came to a sudden panic and almost ran out to find Fox.

"Hey wait who's this?" Falco looked at Adam unsure of what was going on, but his answer was delayed when Krystal ran out unable to control her emotions, "Okay, whoever you are, we can follow, but you're not goin' outta my sight"

Samus stayed within the shadows while Anthony and Madeline commenced their plan. Of course she was part of their little plan; it was just that her job was to get her A.I. to get into the ship's systems to find out what was going on with the crew's abandoning areas despite the fact Samus had no idea how to do that with her A.I. not responding. "_Come on Adam, where are you? We could use you now_" Samus thought searching for any signal that she wasn't needed. A shadow loomed nearby walking closer, no, running closer. Who was it?

It couldn't have been Madeline or Anthony since they both were in a different area than where this one was coming, was it the people she saw earlier? Samus made sure she was hidden well in the shadows and patiently waited like a predator waited for the prey. The footsteps grew louder and louder until it was to the level where Samus knew exactly to jump from the shadows. She quickly rocketed herself out of the shadows managing to grab whoever it was and pin them to the ground. There was no time for Samus to see who it was as someone shot her in the side to throw her off.

She quickly jumped back to her feet and pointed her arm cannon to this mystery shooter while there was a blue vixen standing there pointing her gun at Samus in return. "_Is this some sort of zoo?_" Samus wondered to herself watching as the vixen looked at her like she was checking something.

"Is that her?" the vixen whispered confusing Samus.

"Who?" the confused Samus asked still not dropping her guard.

The vixen didn't answer, instead she just stood there silently until a blue falcon ran up behind her not even seeing Samus.

"Krystal what are you thinking? At least explain to us who that guy was and tell who that Samus person was you two apparently knew. Wait one second, does Fox know about this?" the falcon demanded finally seeing Samus in front of him, "Oh great, more unknown people onboard."

"Wait Falco that's her," Krystal looked over to Samus, "what did you do to Peppy and Fox?"

Samus stood there trying to figure out everything they were saying. How did they know her name? Maybe that guy this "Falco" mentioned knew exactly.

"Lead me to your other guest first" Samus demanded trying to sound serious.

"Answer us first all ready will ya? Where's our two friends?" Falco replied back.

"I see then" Krystal whispered then ran past Samus.

"Hey! Seriously, what's goin' on?!" Falco yelled out then turned toward Samus, "Great, well if you really want to meet that guy then wait here will ya?


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Realization

Fox remained frozen still holding the woman against the wall with the gun still on his head. What was he supposed to do? He couldn't stand there forever; he'd only get himself shot for taking so long to reply. Fox's choice had to come soon before the demander's patience withered away.

"Well do you want to respect her or what?" the demander asked still sounding less threatening.

Before an answer could be made, a screeching sound echoed loudly down the hall and something flew for Fox's head missing by only a centimeter. The woman dug her finger nails into his hand forcing him to let her go so she could run away from both him and whatever the thing was. Fox looked behind him seeing that the demander was too distracted by the thing that flew for his head giving him the opportunity to strike. He attempted to kick his feet to force him onto his back but instead it failed causing the attention to turn back to him. The person first threw a punch but missed and then successfully grabbed Fox's collar throwing him across the floor.

Fox had expected the person come and shoot at him while he was vulnerable yet it wasn't done. The only thing the mystery guy did was place his foot on him to keep him from getting up while he focused on another target.

"I think the Metroid left" the woman told the armored figure.

"Certain? I think we both remember last time someone said something like that," he laughed then looked down at Fox," So can you answer some questions of ours?"

Fox only gave him a questioned gaze.

"Does it even speak English, Anthony?" the woman asked pointing at Fox.

"Maybe not, still gonna carry it along until we find out if does" Anthony said.

"Hey will you stop calling me an 'it'? I have a name!" Fox yelled at them upset by their constant repeat of calling him an "it".

The woman stood shocked for a second before even moving from the immediate response. Anthony, however, was hard to guess since he had a helmet on.

"That answers that one. Well can you tell us if a guy was around here? I mean monotone, completely serious person that doesn't smile? Perhaps by Adam Malkovich?" Anthony questioned grabbing Fox's collar by some odd reason.

They were looking for Adam? He mentioned nothing about an Anthony or a red-haired woman when they talked. Could they be hunting him? Fox couldn't risk turning Adam in since he did know something about his father.

"I have no idea who you're talking about" he lied.

"Hey Madeline, can you call Samus and see if she's found any other crew?" Anthony said with the wrong impression.

To him it must've sounded like he was just asking if they found anything out. For Fox, it sounded more like he was trying to use his friends against him. He tried to kick Anthony off but couldn't like when he tried kicking his feet.

"Hey calm down will you?" Madeline requested for Anthony.

She was about to turn on her comm device when a flash of red flew right by her hand barely burning it. Another came and caught Anthony by surprise when it hit him square in the chest area. He didn't have time to flinch before the next flash came hitting the same area completely knocking him to the ground. Fox was able to roll away from him in that time before Madeline noticed. She was about to call her friend fast but didn't get to before Fox knocked her feet off the ground and she fell.

He turned and saw Anthony get back up on his feet then knocked back down by someone Fox knew. Krystal stood in front of him with her old staff in her hand that everyone forgot she had still.

"Thanks, Krystal. They were looking for Adam." Fox thanked then looked at Madeline who was unconscious on the ground.

"You and Peppy were gone for too long so I had to come down. The Samus Aran he talked about is here onboard. I ran into her but she took a more gentle approach than down here. By the way Adam's snuck on so now Slippy and Falco have met him." Krystal looked at Anthony then went back to Fox.

"Did you run into Peppy? I haven't seen him for awhile at all."

"Samus saw both of you at the same time but not separate. Sorry."

"Okay then, these two won't be much of a problem to us like this," he pointed at the both of them," I say we find Samus and ask for an explanation."

Madeline faked being knocked out and over heard the conversation between the fox and vixen. So he just lied to them about not knowing Adam. She couldn't do anything until the two walked away from her sights. Samus might've known by now about Adam if she ran into the vixen. Her only worry was how she was going to explain the situation to Anthony when he woke.

Anthony was going to be out for awhile certainly so it was all up to Madeline to get to Samus in time. She slowly got to her feet and walked down the hall the way the two did despite her growing back-ache. The halls grew a bit lighter the further she went, yet they were still scary to her since they weren't familiar. She stopped at the elevator door that brought her down there in the first place and started to call Samus.

"Madeline? What is it?" Samus asked as she answered the call.

"The fox you saw earlier is heading to you with a vixen that supposedly ran into you. They know Adam."

"Uh, I kinda know that. To make it short I told what was going on to two of their friends and they said Adam got on their ship somehow and appeared on their bridge."

"You told them!?" Madeline yelled in shock.

"Heck yeah she did!" a new voice said on the other side.

"Who was that?"

"One of them; hey, wait how did you get on our line?" Samus yelled at the other person.

"Yours was interfering with ours! Now Slippy and I can't talk to Fox thank you very much" the person yelled back putting Madeline in the middle of their argument.

"Falco, just get off our line will ya?"

"No, you get off our line. We kinda need to tell the others it's a misunderstanding!"

"Falco let's just get off it. We'll tell them some other way" another voice said.

"Slippy, shut up. This is my business okay? Let me handle it from here"

"Madeline, just get up here with Anthony okay?" Samus asked getting away from the new argument.

Madeline replied with a, "sure" and took the walk back where she came just to drag Anthony along.

"Oh and did you see their other friend, the one I spotted earlier?"

"Don't think so"

"Oh, if you get back to that elevator go to the top floor. Forgot to add"

"Okay since you guys are done let us talk to our teammates okay?" Falco rudely said as Madeline disconnected.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Explanations

Samus got off her call and looked over at the two she was stuck with in the bridge. Falco was talking on his comm while Slippy was sitting near Samus blushing with embarrassment from their conversation. It was her wonder if he was always yelled at like that if Falco seemed to take it naturally. She took the waiting time to ask one thing she always wondered.

"So if there's five of you guys total, why do you have such a big ship?" she asked turning towards Slippy.

"No clue" he shrugged.

Samus raised a brow in question.

"How can you own it and not know?"

"Me? Own this? No it's Fox's. Well originally his dad's but he inherited the first one and wanted it to be the same"

"What do you-?"

"Don't ask me. Peppy can tell"

Samus stopped her questions. At this point she knew that they wouldn't trust her enough to tell everything. Falco was done talking with the rest of the team and approached Samus,

"You're sure you haven't seen Peppy down there?"

"I only saw him once never more"

The door slid open letting Madeline, Anthony, and Krystal through but the first thing Samus noticed was the condition of Anthony's armor. He had a deep scorch mark on his chest plate deep enough to be close to burn his skin. She kept the urge to ask or run up to him due to keeping reputation intact with these weird people. Something worth questioning was where Fox was. Wasn't he with Krystal?

"Hey where's Fox?" Falco asked straight from everyone's mind.

"He went off to find Peppy. It's odd; he never disappears without a response. I hope he's alright…" Krystal wandered her way to the front of the room where the large viewing window was far from door.

Falco followed her over dragging Slippy, literally, behind with him. Samus could finally talk with Anthony and Madeline after the crazy event caused by one misunderstanding. Though there was an opportunity, no one took it. It was all silent with the trio unsure if this was part of a test, test of trust.

"You weren't joking about the Metroid; it went for my head!" Anthony broke the ice.

"How did it get out here though? Did the Pirates get this far? Well maybe not, their fox friend seemed unfamiliar with it" Madeline whispered.

Samus thought for a few moments from all the past events. Maybe Adam knew the true answer to Madeline's question. Where was he now?

"I really mean it! I've never met these people before, Peppy!"

Everyone looked towards the door where Fox and Peppy were in the middle of an argument.

"Is that why he said, 'I told you, some other time'? What did I tell you about meeting that stranger?!"

Anthony, Madeline, and Samus felt a little awkward sitting there in the middle of an argument that may've involved them. Especially since they weren't seen yet, yet.

"Next time don't go out to do things like that again" Peppy scolded then walked past them without even a glance, Fox walked by them staring at them in question, however.

Odd, still Samus wondered where Adam was instead of worrying what the goofball group was doing. It wasn't her business anymore, the reason she came was for Adam. Nothing else was discussed in the plan, so that meant now or never to ask them.

"Hey, one of you guys know where Adam is?" she gained their attention successfully.

"Not like I know" Falco sarcastically stated.

"Well why don't you show her where with Slippy?" Peppy directed in a strict manner.

"Wait-what? I was-I mean… ugh, fine gramps. Slippy, don't screw up like usual" Falco walked right past everyone without even looking back or slowing for anyone to catch up.

Slippy went up to Samus, and like a child, grabbed her hand to lead her. Anthony and Madeline looked to each other before running after them. Fox watched them leave preparing for what was next. He knew since there was only one reason everyone but him and Krystal were sent out.

"Why did you head out without even telling me? As far as I know you could've been killed or kidnapped and no one would know"

"You wandered off earlier, so why don't you yell at yourself?"

"That's something else"

Falco had lead Samus back down to the Hangar which was weird for her at first until she saw Adam right outside of an open door waiting. She was about to speak when Adam stopped her.

"We'll talk in here and I'll explain some things" he told her. j

Adam lead Samus into the barely empty room where a few half-opened and closed boxes were scattered about. Samus watched Adam stroll across the room waiting for him to sit on one of the boxes before she spoke.  
"Why didn't you try to contact the Federation if you were here Adam? Someone would've come to get you instead of pretending to be dead to us and be with... with... those...people" she struggled to say calmly.  
Adam didn't give a worded response back. He sat there as if he wanted her to calm down before he could say a thing. Samus' frustration only grew to what he was doing with weird animal-people.  
"If I tried someone around here would've noticed then there would be a major problem on both hands," he paused to let her think about it," and besides there's a similar situation on this side."  
"And that would be?" Samus questioned getting ready for a long story.  
He sighed then explained, "Lylat, the current system we're in, has suffered from a parasite enemy they call Aparoids. What happened was that these Aparoids invaded, took over machines plus living beings, and destroyed whole fleets. Those people outside you deem weird are known as the Star Fox team, mercenaries. They fought them back to the Aparoid home world and ended the invasion by killing the queen."  
Samus interrupted, "Wait one minute, if the invasion was ended what does that have to do with you being here?"  
"When I crashed into the world they call Corneria, a Metroid from Sector Zero had escaped and I had an encounter with one of those Aparoids. Ever since I've noticed a grow in reports of Metroids, yet I notice that they are described as a sort of purplish tint color, infection."  
"That's why you're with them?" she said as soon as a commotion started outside.  
"Dang it Slippy! Watch it will ya?!"  
"Sorry Falco"  
"Well don't you ever know how to not be such a fai-" then the sound of someone being hit by a metal object was heard, Falco must've got hit by Slippy's wrench.  
Samus thumbed the door, "Those are the mercenaries that saved this system? Yeah right."  
"Don't deny them, Lady. At times they're capable of doing so," Adam said calmly as he got up and headed to the door, "let's be on our way to settle things out from earlier."


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10: New Threat

"What the heck Slippy?!" Falco screamed at Slippy.

Slippy noticed Adam walk out the door right as Falco yelled at him. Samus also came out looking at them weirdly causing Slippy to blush in embarrassment in front of new people. Falco had no clue he was blushing in embarrassment rather than shame and continued on.

"Seriously Slippy! Watch where you put your stupid tools! Just because you lost your tool box doesn't mean you can place them where ever you want! Go get a new one!"

"Now you're starting to sound like Peppy"

"Well what do you-"

Adam cleared his throat allowing Falco to notice him and Samus.

"Are the both of you ready to head back or should I let you finish?"

"Okay, fine. This way" Falco sounded a little ticked off.

"These people? The only conversations I see them having are arguments. How do they work together?" Samus whispered over to Adam.

"Like what I told you, never underestimate them, Lady"

There were no comments afterward from Samus or Adam until they got to the elevator. Slippy decided to ask something to Samus since they were the only ones in there.

"So, uh, what does a Metroid exactly do? I know what it looks like but-uh"

"Didn't I explain?"

"No, you left that out" Falco responded.

"We'll tell when we get back to the bridge" Adam said.

The door opened and Adam walked out ahead of the others. The other three lagged behind then continued the conversation.

"What's with him? Way too quiet for me" Falco whispered to Samus.

"You can't take him because he's, well was, a military officer. Never met one?" Samus told.

"We've met a few. There's General Pepper, there's Bill Gra-"

"Really, Slippy? Don't tell a stranger everything, especially when they break onto here"

"Okay"

Adam reached the bridge door but waited for the other three before entering. Assuring they were a few feet away, he walked into Peppy, Fox, and Krystal talking about something that couldn't be heard. Fox looked over to the four that were entering waiting for them all to head his way.

"So what's up?" Falco asked.

"We've found who called us out here. It was Wolf. But recently we found that his hiding spot was brutally attacked by unknown forces. He and the rest of Star Wolf turned themselves in to the Cornerian police after their hideout was annihilated," Fox looked at the ground, "I think we know who's behind it"

"Star Wolf?" Madeline thought out loud.

"They don't like us. That work?"

"So you think the Aparoids and Metroids are behind this? That seems unlikely to me Metroids aren't destructive but they do waste life" Anthony questioned.

"We won't know for sure if it was them, they won't tell what happened. The only thing we got was that Wolf directly asked that we go to Sauria and visit Tricky to know what happened"

"Wait one second, Peppy. Why would your enemy ask you to visit somewhere to know what happened? It could be trap" Samus knew if she had an enemy like that there would be a trick.

"There isn't a choice, we have to visit Tricky. Good thing we know him or we'd be stuck" Krystal stated looking at her.

"Aww, now I know I should've gotten the bug spray before we left. I'm going to be bitten a lot" Slippy whined gaining a few "really?" faces from everyone.

"Let's get there as soon as possible" Fox said then split off from everyone.

"As soon as possible" Samus repeated


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11: The "Shadow"

Madeline followed Slippy back to the dark maintenance hall to fix up some things from before. Madeline didn't feel like talking with him but surely it was the opposite for Slippy. He kept asking things like, "Seriously no one tells me what a Metroid is, can you tell me?" "Have you ever seen Falco's girlfriend? Well actually she follows him around, but still have you?" and "Does everyone from the Federation sneak up on people?" She blocked him out of her mind until he asked something she knew too well.

"Why does that Adam guy stare at you weirdly? Did you take something of his or something?"

"I didn't take anything"

"Then why?"

Madeline thought for a while on how to explain something like this to a stranger. Should he know about the Bottle Ship? Samus might've already told so why not?

"I was a research director on a research station, illegal research station. I guess I heard that after many monsters were set lose he had come aboard with his platoon and Samus searching for survivors"

"So that's how you know that woman! Wait, what happened?"

"Fine, what was being researched was how to control Zebesians and Metroids as bio-weapons. Something happened and the Zebesians were set loose killing everyone else on board. I only managed to survive because I hid in a room setting a Metroid Queen loose if anything came too close to me. And I know you're about to ask, so let me tell. A Metroid is a being that lives off of any creature's life energy and drains it. I know I shouldn't have been part of a program that brought Metroids back, but when I was offered to come all I thought was how I could've been promoted if the experiments went well. Maybe it is my fault this is happening"

"Hey if it helps the reason everyone likes to yell at me is because I mess-up way more often"

Madeline was about to comment when she heard a screech coming from the room they were by. Slippy recognized the scream and was getting more and more nervous each second standing still.

"You were asking what a Metroid was because you have seen it too"

Slippy nodded as he slowly backed away from the door. Madeline looked at him then back to the door figuring what to do.

"We're not going to get anything done if it's there. I'll go in and trap it while you stay out here and make sure it doesn't escape"

Before a word against it was said Madeline rushed in the room making sure the door was locked tight. For some reason it felt like the room was colder than in the other areas she'd been in. Why was that? Metroids didn't like the cold, so what was one doing here? It could be a mistake on where it was since after all it was a guess.

She was about to leave but the feeling that there was something else there kept her in place. Where could that Metroid be? Being stationary wouldn't help her find it meaning Madeline had to move around the room to find it. Move to where was the real question in her mind because the metroid could be anywhere or somewhere else. She walked around the whole room and saw how much damage was done there that must've been the metroid.

She stopped to inspect one the pipes letting her guard down. She had no clue that the metroid hovered right above her ready to attack. Madeline saw the shadow slightly and turned in time to see it launch right toward her ready to latch to her head. In very short seconds the metroid was going to take all her life energy and it'll be all over. That's what Madeline expected, but that's not what happened.

She covered her face with her arms as a reflex but was surprised when something slammed against her arms then the sound of ice shattering was heard. The few seconds in between where nothing else happened told that the threat was gone. Madeline lowered her arms to see what in the world had occurred and was confused. There the metroid was on the ground, shattered and frozen. But, how?

"Always be ready for somethin', common knowledge"

Madeline looked around trying to find the voice's source.

"What? Right here"

She looked behind her seeing a dark figure hiding in the shadow of all the piping. The person was well hidden enough to keep Madeline from seeing what they looked like.

"Next time might not be lucky. Keep in mind self-defense is important with those things. Quite nasty-"

"Who are you exactly,? I don't think there's another member in this team" Madeline looked at the person suspiciously.

"Hey not yet, when ya find my friend on Sauria I'll give an intro 'kay? Let me say one thing, learn to get along with Star Fox and you'll find them useful in this situation. They'll have most of the answers"

"Hey! Are you okay?

Madeline turned at the door seeing Slippy there doing the opposite of what she wanted him to do. She went back to looking at the other person yet she disappeared off.

"Ma'am?"

"Took care of it, just don't use these ice cubes for any lemonade" she pointed at what was left of the metroid.

"Okay. Let's start fixing this disaster already"

"Yeah" Madeline muttered.

She could've told him, but she decided to keep it to herself. Though, she had one person in mind that might have seen who it was.

"Slippy reports he's fixing some of the piping now. That's one thing done" Fox reported to the others.

While Slippy and Madeline were down doing repairs the others were still in the bridge making sure the path to Sauria was clear. Fox couldn't fully trust Samus and her friends yet so he planned to keep each one individually by his friends to see if they trusted each one. He sent Slippy with Madeline, Peppy with Adam, Krystal with Anthony, and him with Samus. Falco just had to sit on the side due to the fact that he wasn't exactly the best person to socialize with. He still had to watch them though for safety reasons.

So far Samus wasn't doing any suspicious activity and she wasn't talking much. It made things easy for Fox so he could get his work done without much worry.

"What time do we get there you think?" Anthony asked from the other side of the room.

"Estimated time… one day" Rob, the ship's android, responded while it worked on flying the ship.

"Still getting used to that thing" Samus whispered to herself.

Fox was tempted to tell her he was still getting used to her but kept it in his head in case it counted as offensive to her. He checked on how his friends reacted with their "assigned" people just in case. Adam and Peppy seemed fine as they had short, brief conversations about possibly the latest events. Krystal was laughing at something Anthony told her then she whispered something back making him laugh in turn. "_You'd better not be flirting with her_" Fox thought in his head as he looked away.

He knew what Falco was up to before he even got a glance since it was typical of him; sleeping. Falco just sat in one of the chairs catching z's with his beak open snoring. At least he wasn't needed now or there would be a serious yelling right about now.

"So, what's Sauria like? I've never heard about it so…" Samus asked Fox looking directly at him.

He looked at her for a minute or so. Is it okay to tell her about the dinosaurs?

"Different, how 'bout that?"

"As in what?"

"Not science. All magic. All dinosaurs"

Samus chuckled getting the weird eye from him.

"Dinosaurs? Wow that's just weird. The human home world had those at one point a VERY long time ago"

"What happened?"

"Extinction. Still not so clear how, but you know millions of years ago"

"Huh, coincidence. Not sure if yours were but the Saurians are tribal. The ones I know are the Earthwalkers, Cloudrunners, Lightfoots, Sharpclaw, and Snowhorns. Just don't take things from a Lightfoot, bring a Cloudrunner and Earthwalker near each other, and I highly recommend not encountering a Sharpclaw"

"Uh… why?"

"Long story. Long story. Okay the Lightfoots thought I stole their gem and they tied me to a totem pole and started poking me with spears. Cloudrunners and Earthwalkers generally don't get along. Plus Sharpclaw are violent"

"Wow you must've really angered someone to be poked with a spear. I'll just stay away from those people"

"Better"

As soon as the word came out it went back to silence between the two. Samus looked over at Adam and thought of something else to ask.

"Hey, Fox. Why was it earlier your friend, Peppy, was yelling at you like he was your dad?"

"Why do you worry about Adam like he's your dad? How about if we do end up fully trusting each other I'll explain and you can too"

"Fair enough, obvious we aren't at that stage yet. Actually, can I go back and grab something from my ship?"

"I'll have to follow though. Is it important?"

Samus thought.

"Know what? I'll get it later, more important things need to be done here"

She looked back to Adam and started thinking about some things. She wanted to get Adam's picture but she wondered about what Commander Frank said. It was still there after the long time even when they cleared it out. That and on her way here a fox broke into the offices. Could they be related? Did Fox know what it was about? Maybe not since there could be many foxes out there from Lylat. Yet, it seemed too coincidental in her mind.


	12. Chapter 12

p class="MsoNormal" Rob had miscounted the time between Sargasso and Sauria being one day. Turns out it was actually five hours including the time spent finding a place to land the emGreat Fox 2/em without crushing things. The early time frustrated Falco who was wanting the twenty-four hours of sleep without having to do work. Everyone but him didn't really care though and carried on to head outside through the hangar./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Handy how you can walk through the same area you fly through!" Anthony commented to Slippy on their way out./p  
p class="MsoNormal" Samus watched him leave as she stood by her ship. She decided to wait for Fox and Adam who were finishing a conversation in the elevator. To her surprise Peppy was walking with Madeline in discussion about the natives on the planet. Adam wasn't far behind and came up to Samus./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Ready, lady? Remember this will be completely different from Federation planets"/p  
p class="MsoNormal" She nodded watching Fox pass. She'd been standing there for some time and hadn't seen Krystal pass by. She was about to ask when Adam answered./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Krystal went out early saying she was going to explain some things to the natives. I'd say she knows a lot here to do that"/p  
p class="MsoNormal" They started to head out with the others at a steady pace. Samus looked behind her wondering if later she would get the picture. Yes it had to be. Now it's too late and not the kind of time./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Is there something?" Adam looked a bit concerned./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Sorry just trying to decide something"/p  
p class="MsoNormal" See turned around and was met with the view of what Fox had called Cape Claw. The ocean view was amazing to see after all of her traveling in space. The cape had the sand beach, a few palms, and a dinosaur she thought was a Diplodocus standing in the water./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Oh-kay, might've forgotten Hightops. There's very few of those guys left so enjoy it while you see it" Fox told Samus as she came up to him./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Kodak moment, Princess" Anthony joked pulling out a camera and taking a picture./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Kodak moment? Is that supposed to mean something?" Falco wondered./p  
p class="MsoNormal""It's supposed to mean picture moment"/p  
p class="MsoNormal""Oh that works"/p  
p class="MsoNormal" Fox looked around in search for Krystal. She was supposed to come with Tricky real soon. He looked and saw everyone backing up from where he was. What were they doing?/p  
p class="MsoNormal""Foooxxxx!" oh no./p  
p class="MsoNormal" He couldn't even move in time before a huge Triceratops landed right on top of him surprisingly not crushing him completely./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Kodak moment!" Anthony yelled taking a few shots./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Make sure to get his face"/p  
p class="MsoNormal""Falco!...Not…helping!" Fox barely managed to say from the crushing pressure./p  
p class="MsoNormal" The huge dinosaur rolled off him then jumped around in excitement./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Oh boy, oh boy! You came back Fox! I told you I'd get this place fixed for you and Krystal's honeymoon!"/p  
p class="MsoNormal" Madeline looked and saw the team all giggling like little kids when he said "honeymoon"./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Err, uh Tricky I thought we discussed this!" He whispered to the dinosaur./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Aww, I thought that's what you came for! What am I supposed to tell the others?"/p  
p class="MsoNormal""The what?"/p  
p class="MsoNormal" Everyone looked past Tricky and saw two other Triceratopses coming along carrying different types of flowers and there Krystal was on one of their backs./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Jehho! Kxoho aj de xedoneen! A jkacc kxadb je! (emSorry guys! There is no honeymoon! I still think so!/em)" Tricky told the others when they were right next to him./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Ev seijo! Kxoo'ho fohvosk veh oukx ekxoh! (emOf course! They're perfect for each other!/em)" One of them replied as Krystal slipped off./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Kxudj, a't cabo ke ro xoho nhod kxoho aj edo! (emThanks, I'd like to be here when there is one!/em)" Krystal said walking to her friends./p  
p class="MsoNormal""What were they saying?" Madeline asked Slippy./p  
p class="MsoNormal""I barely even know"/p  
p class="MsoNormal" The small crowd behind Fox stood puzzled on what the conversation was about, especially the human part. Madeline came forward from the crowd grabbing the attention of the dinosaurs./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Hi, uh excuse me but we happen to be here because we've been told to see you by Wolf"/p  
p class="MsoNormal""O'Donnell" Fox added./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Ex, homomroh, Prince Tricky? (emOh, remember, Prince Tricky/em?)" one of Tricky's people said./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Him? Yeah, yeah there was something! I thought this would be a quick visit before my meeting! As soon as it's done we can discuss it! What about your other friends, Fox?"/p  
p class="MsoNormal""Succ kxom, Furskins, udt kxoo sud ukkodt. (emCall them, Furskins, so they can attend/em)"/p  
p class="MsoNormal""Let's go then! C'mon now!" Tricky lowered himself as the other two did./p  
p class="MsoNormal" It took them awhile to realize he wanted them to ride on their backs. Fox and Krystal were the first to climb onto Tricky to demonstrate for the others still uncertain./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Oh I'm going to be sick this trip" Madeline whined walking to a different dinosaur./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Ex khijk mo, ak'j nehjo ed u Cloudrunner. (emOh trust me, it's worse on a Cloudrunner/em)"/p  
p class="MsoNormal" Falco was the last one and he noticed Peppy didn't follow./p  
p class="MsoNormal""What? Too much for ya Gramps?"/p  
p class="MsoNormal""No, I just need to do something before I go. I'll catch up later"/p  
p class="MsoNormal""Are you sure, Peppy?" Krystal asked while Falco was trying to jump onto the same dinosaur as Slippy./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Uh-huh. I'll be fine"/p  
p class="MsoNormal""Okay Fox's boss! To the Walled City!"/p  
p class="MsoNormal""Tricky, he's not my boss!"/p  
p class="MsoNormal" Off the others went leaving Peppy behind. He watched them leave until they were gone from his sights./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Wonder how that ride'll be" someone said/p  
p class="MsoNormal""Are you going to keep following us or something?"/p  
p class="MsoNormal""Hey not ALL the time, just when things need settled out"/p  
p class="MsoNormal""Careful with that, they're wondering where I went to earlier. By the way, what's here that Wolf wanted us to see?"/p  
p class="MsoNormal""Can't tell ya, but I will say that I have a friend here they're supposed to meet"/p 


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13: Road to the Walled City

"Urgh, I AM going to be sick!" Madeline yelled turning a little green.

"Fcoujo dek ed mo! (_Please not on me!_)" the Triceratops she was on pleaded.

"Whoa there!" Anthony grabbed Madeline's arm as she bent over the side throwing-up.

"Oh yeah, not like I was wanting lunch later" Falco sarcastically said trying to not do the same.

"So how's it been, Fox? Are you beating more bad guys? I want in too!"

"Well, uh sort-of. We'll discuss that later"

"Hey one second, how do you know each other?" Anthony asked still holding Madeline's arm.

"Fox came here to save Sauria from General Scales three years ago and I helped too!"

"Dek zijk Sauria. (_Not just Sauria_)" Krystal whispered to Tricky.

"You know what? It would be useful to have a translator around here! Why does Fox get the only one?" Falco exclaimed crossing his arms.

"Zijk ujb ij ke jfoub Cornerian! (_Just ask us to speak Cornerian!_)"

"See?! See?! See what I mean?!"

"A walo if. (_I give up_)"

"Just ask them to speak Cornerian, Falco" Krystal told Falco.

"Ooj, ooj! Nxuk kxo nemud juat! (_Yes, yes! What the woman said!_)"

"We need to focus on what's most important and why we're here" Adam was stuck behind Slippy and Falco and already he couldn't take it.

Samus looked over a few times noticing how the two were cat fighting at times over something and she thought Adam's face when they did so was humorous.

"So what's the meeting?" Samus was a bit curious about what they were going to see.

"It's supposed to be about some events that have happened lately, all of the tribes are there"

"Kxo Cloudrunners, Thorntails, Snowhorns, Hightops, Lightfoots, udt olox Sharpclaws. (_The Cloudrunners, Thorntails, Snowhorns, Hightops, Lightfoots, and even Sharpclaws_)"

"So you're Earthwalkers?" Samus concluded.

"Ooj! Keeb Kxuk cedw? (_Yes! Took that long?_)"

"Sometimes I forget you're not familiar with this" Fox stated.

"Hey I have an idea. It'll be awhile until we get to the city so why don't we learn about each other? I'm Tricky prince and Fox's friend!"

"De cemmodk. (_No comment_)" the two Earthwalkers said.

"I don't want to talk personal to strangers" Falco stared at Slippy in a way to keep him from talking.

"Not quite yet" was Adam's statement.

"Learned more about Adam than ever, but I'm not at that stage of trust" Madeline commented trying to keep from barfing again.

The rest just stayed quiet expecting Tricky to learn soon they didn't really know each other well enough to tell.

"Wow, they aren't very social" Tricky told his two assistants.

"A kxeiwxk kxoho neict ro meho. (_I thought there would be more_)"

"Ted'k wok kxojo foefco. (_Don't get these people_)"

"Here's the thing Tricky, some of us have only just met so-"

"Oh you could have said that!" Tricky disrupted Fox.

"Please tell me we're almost there… I can't stand this ride anymore!"

Anthony looked around to everyone trying to not look at Madeline getting sick. Samus felt lucky she wasn't there to see what he did. Fox and Krystal weren't so bad unlike the two Adam was with so her choice of a ride wasn't too bad. Looking at the sky somehow made it feel like the trip was very long when she saw the sun moving quick across the sky. If it weren't for over-hearing Slippy saying time was fast here it would've counted as hours in her head.

Samus looked back in front of her and saw two Dryosauroses dressed like old American Indians running to them with spears in hand.

"Nxuk'j nhedw? (_What's wrong?_)" Tricky asked the two.

"Kxo Jellyclaws uho ad Lightfoot Village. (_The Jellyclaws are in Lightfoot Village_)" one responded.

"They said the Jellyclaws are in their village," Krystal translated for the others," Sud no xocf? (_Can we help?_)"

"Vado, semo Furballs. (_Fine, come Furballs_)" The two ran off.

"Let's go guys" Fox called jumping off Tricky.

"I still think we need a translator!" Falco yelled as he jumped off his ride.

"Uh, I think that-"

"Just get off, Slippy!" Falco forcefully grabbed Slippy's leg and pulled him off.

Madeline got off and turned to the Earthwalker she was riding to ask something.

"What's a Jellyclaw? Oh, answer in English-no Cornerian I mean"

"It's something that's been attacking tribes recently. That's what the meeting's about" one of them answered in full English/Cornerian.

"Thanks for the partial ride dinosaur guys! We'll call for a taxi later" Anthony grabbed Madeline's hand and ran dragging her along to catch up with the others.

"Nxuk noho kxejo kxadwj? (_What were those things?_)"

"Nxe suhoj? A ted'k xulo ke jmocc lemak udomeho! (_Who cares? I don't have to smell vomit anymore!_"

"Xoo, cok'j wok rusb ke kxo sako. (_Hey, let's get back to the city_)"


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14: Trouble in Lightfoot Village

The group of eight ran through the Saurian forest with Fox in the lead. It was very noticeable that there were no dinosaurs in their path and even the various creatures that usually swooped down to attack. Seemed everything was hiding from whatever these "Jellyclaws" were.

"Are you sure that there isn't more than one Lightfoot Village? C'mon Fox, we should've not lost those weird guys"

"Falco I'm sure there's one"

"Oh yeah, trust Fox's opinion when we could've followed the-"

"Oh my goodness Falco; will you please be quiet?" Madeline couldn't take Falco anymore.

Honestly, everyone was both confused and annoyed at this point because of this uninformed situation. Some of the group thought this was a prank the dinosaurs set up due to the immediate out-of-nowhere problem. Fox knew though that the name the Lightfoots gave the invader sounded familiar to a description he heard, the Metroid. So Metroids were here too and were hunting the different tribes. He wasn't going to accept that.

Fox came to a halt when he was outside of a mossy cobblestone wall recognizing it. The others behind him didn't see him stop in time and started to stop and eventually knock each other over. Slippy, however, was the one furthest to the side ending up running into a tree with a painted target on it. Fox looked behind him seeing everyone stacked up on the ground (minus Slippy).

"What are you guys doing? Anyway here's the village, behind that wall"

"How're we supposed to get in with the wall? We can't blow this one up" Falco asked.

"Easy, I remember there's a gate that's opened with a combo," Fox looked over to Slippy dazed on the ground, "Slippy! Did that tree make a weird sound?"

Slippy jumped back to his feet and rubbed his forehead, "All I heard was my skull being crushed"

Falco laughed at Slippy and received stares from Samus.

"What was the sound supposed to signify?" Samus asked.

"Well the gate combo is hitting the trees, and they make a weird sound. I don't think they work like that anymore. Well I hope you all know how to climb walls. I'll go first to check on things" Fox walked up to the wall and started to slowly grab the parts sticking out to climb it.

The seven were still stacked up and noticed that when Fox went away. Samus (who sadly was the one at the very bottom) looked up to see Anthony at the top sleeping.

"Hey Anthony, I don't know if you know but you're kinda heavy" Madeline moaned trying to wiggle herself out.

"I don't know, I might take a nap here"

"Anthony I hate you some days"

"Anthony!"

"Oh come on"

"Slippy stop taking pictures!"

Samus looked to her left and saw Slippy taking pictures with Anthony's camera laughing. Oh how the tables turned for Falco. Samus guessed Anthony wasn't getting off just for this scheme. "_Well Slippy better print extra copies_" she thought.

"Hey guys! Stop laying there and get up here!" Fox yelled from the top of the wall.

Samus took it that Slippy had enough pictures of this and they did need to get more serious. She used all of her strength to push herself up throwing everyone off of her. Slippy wasn't done with the pictures when Anthony went further by grabbing Falco's foot and holding it up like he caught a large fish. Adam didn't stop to laugh; instead he went to climb up the wall where Fox was still waiting. Samus followed behind watching every stone he grabbed to get up.

"So what's going on?" Adam asked Fox once he got up.

"See, the natives barred themselves in their own houses and guess what's floating around" Fox pointed at something.

Samus got to the top wondering what he was pointing at. She looked behind the wall and saw a small swamp with small circular two-story huts sticking out of the water. Samus managed to spot what was being pointed at; there was a Metroid grabbing at a metal bar where two Lightfoots were hiding behind poking at it with spears. Surprisingly she could see that the poking was successful by the fact that the Metroid was bleeding only a little. That didn't seem possible.

"What's the plan?" Adam scanned the area planning.

"You guys are more familiar with those things than I am. What do you say?" Fox looked concerned for the two Lightfoots.

"It seems that the Metroids are weaker and don't require Ice Beams like they used to. If they can do damage to them with simple spears then that means that a simple charged shot could do" Samus figured that guessing that they might be easier than thought.

The three were joined by the rest who finally got up. Everyone looked into the scenery and spotted the same Metroid.

"Here's the plan; we separate out and take out the Metroids with charged shots because they're weaker than we first thought. Don't let your guard down though" Samus told the others basically stating what she knew.

"I think I got it, but just in case could you please say that again? I wasn't listening" Anthony joked.

No one else got it and left him there to go do what they had to do.

"Oh come on guys! That was from Earth's most funny movie!" Anthony called out while he jumped off into the swamp water.

Fox stood at the edge of the water looking around for more new enemies. First thing to do was be sure yet he saw only the one. He looked at the hut trying to find the ladder up to the Metroid which was in the water torn off. "_Wow, that thing must really not want us to get there_" he thought as he looked for another option. There was another close hut that still had the ladder. There was nothing said about what the needed distance was.

"Only way up down?" Samus asked as she approached him.

"Yeah, but we could get a shot from the nearby hut"

"That's good, I'll see if I can keep it from seeing you" Samus ran off a different direction.

Fox wasted no time and ran into the deep-murky water reaching the ladder fast. He climbed it and could see Samus climbing up a nearby totem pole at the same time. Fox could only think of what her plan was as he went to the next ladder up. He reached the top and looked at the Metroid with better detail than up on the wall. It had a purple tint and it was more vicious-looking with two extra big claws.

Only one second could be spent studying it as a beam bounced off the Metroid's skin confusing it. So that's what she was up to. Fox took a quick glance seeing Samus on top of the pole shooting small shots at it to anger it. There wasn't time to waste so he took out his blaster and charged it up until it was ready. The Metroid figured their trick out too soon then saw Fox from the light his blaster emitted.

Thanks to the small shots fired at it, it was steaming mad so it flew for Fox leaving the two Lightfoots alone. Fox noticed and took the shot at it when it was crossing between the two huts right before it could get to him with his eyes closed. He half-expected it to not work but looked a few seconds later freaked out by the sight of the Metroid swelling up inside before freezing and falling into the water.

"Is that normal?!" he yelled over to Samus and she nodded "no".

"Gah! Get away!" Fox looked down at the bank seeing no other than Slippy running from a large wave of Metroids.

"Hey it's my job to do this you ugly things!" Falco yelled at them shooting a few rounds.

Fox jumped off the platform of the hut back into the water to go help his friends like he always ended up doing. Right when he hit the water it felt like something was biting his foot but it wasn't possible to see what with the dark waters. He ignored it until he got to the more shallow part and saw it was the frozen Metroid grabbing his foot and shivering as it did. So it was clinging for life was it? Or was it stealing for life? Fox couldn't let it stay there so he went to the edge of the water and stomped the foot it was on letting it shatter like glass.

"Gaaahhh!" Slippy was running more franticly when one of the Metroids had grabbed his hat.

"Slippy calm down! We can't help if you keep running away!" this time Krystal was chasing him using her staff.

Fox was about to run in to help when he heard a whistle come from the direction of a hill with a large circular entrance.

"Hey! Get them over here!" something that he didn't know was a space pirate yelled then ran into the hill.

Fox looked back in front of him then pursued Slippy and the Metroids. He ran up to Krystal to inform her.

"Get these things to the hill!"

"Why?"

"New plan!"

He ran a little faster catching up to Slippy this time barely having the breath left to inform him.

"Slippy run to that hill then jump to the side once you get to the entrance!"

Slippy changed direction to where Fox indicated desperate to get away from the Metroids. Imagine the laughs the natives got when they saw Slippy running to the hill like a weirdo. Whether or not the natives laughed Slippy did as he was told and jumped to the side as he came to the entrance into the hill. The Metroids chasing him assumed he was still running straight and went into the hill.

"What's supposed to happen?" Krystal asked a panting Fox.

He shrugged at the exact same time a circular disc rolled into the hill entrance sealing it and the Metroids inside. Slippy walked up to it looking down. One of the Metroids still had his hat.

"Hey you're all still alive!" Anthony called out to them followed by the rest of the group.

"You too!" Fox called back.

Everyone gathered back together heading for the gate out leaving the Lightfoots to decide if they wanted to go out or not.

"Crazy how many Metroids were hiding in the trees" Anthony said.

"I lost my hat…"

"Oh c'mon Slippy, you can just get another one" Falco suggested

"But I-"

"So at least we know the fact there are Metroids elsewhere, the Aparoid part will need further proof" Adam confirmed getting the subject away from Slippy's hat.

"Yeah, now who's calling the Taxi?" Samus joked looking straight at Anthony.

"Well… hey Fox, Why don't you lead the way to the city?" Anthony stepped behind Fox to show he was in the lead.

"Really? Ever been to a city? Speaking of which since we can't call for a ride we'll walk because people want me to apparently"

"We have to ask your friend Tricky about both the situation here and what Wolf O'Donnell is about here" Adam drew attention back to getting to the city once more.

Everyone nodded in agreement then headed back on their original road letting Fox lead once more.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15: The Walled City Meeting

"Oei bden oei'ho jcen nxod… (_You know you're slow when…_)"

"U nuo ectoh fohjed wokj xoho vahjk! (_A way older person gets here first!_)"

An Earthwalker and Lightfoot passed by laughing when Peppy arrived at the city. Maybe it was good he didn't know what they were saying but it wasn't like anything would happen if he did. The city itself wasn't a London or New York type of city yet more like step pyramid buildings in separate areas type. In the middle of all the buildings was the biggest step pyramid in red and the front of it had a ramp leading to the top.

"Fox's boss, you walked here?" Tricky approached Peppy from the side where he appeared to be waiting.

"How else? Where are the others by the way?"

"I was waiting for them. Everyone went to Lightfoot Village to handle a problem there"

"Tricky xihho if xoho roveho kxo Sharpclaw wok ke kxo sako! (_Tricky hurry up here before the Sharpclaw get to the city!_)" an Earthwalker called out from the top of the big pyramid.

"We can wait for them up there before the Sharpclaw get here" Tricky headed for the ramp where his people were waiting.

"Why is it those bat things only seem to see Madeline?" Samus questioned after they left the forest and swooping bats behind.

"I think it's because her hair's the first color they see" Slippy answered looking at the pouting Madeline.

"It was no fair, while I was being scratched at you guys kept walking away" Madeline pouted like a child crossing her arms.

"Because none of us want to be attacked too" Falco stated ready to just leave her behind.

"Stop the arguing and keep walking already!" Fox yelled at them from the front of the group.

It seemed that many of the creatures here feared the Metroids as much as the native tribes. If that was so then it could be easier to tell where Metroids are if there is a lack of monsters in an area.

"Finally there's a city, when we get there I call for some nap time" Falco pointed the blue and red wall up ahead.

"There is no time for napping" Adam corrected Falco.

"I'll find time for one"

"Yeah, because all the time is Falco's sleeping time" Krystal whispered over to Anthony.

Fox kept himself from glaring at Anthony with a sort of jealousy. It was best to not be in a jealous state when arriving at an important tribe meeting.

"Is that Peppy?" Samus gained everyone's attention while pointing at the top of the city's large step pyramid.

It had to be him because he was the only rabbit that travelled with them that and only one person that could carry a conversation with Tricky.

"I have a feeling this meeting's there. Let's head up so we don't end up being late like we might already be" Adam started his way up encouraging the others to follow.

Samus stared at the top of the step-pyramid questioning how in the world big dinosaurs were all going to fit up there including the eight of them. Fox and Krystal must've been whispering something to each other about how it would be possible since they seemed to have a easier time figuring it out. If only she could hear what exactly so it would be less complicated on how.

"Don't get left behind, Princess" Anthony grabbed Samus' hand and pulled her along with the rest.

In her mind, it was awkward with both of not knowing what was at top and her best friend holding her hand. She thought it couldn't be worse until she reached the top finding Falco giggling at her and Anthony holding hands. Very mature of him. Samus threw her hand free from Anthony then wandered off to Fox who was having a quick chat with a random Lightfoot standing in the middle of the room. One second the dinosaur was there then the next a bright light enveloped him and he was gone.

Fox was about to step in the Lightfoot's place as he saw Samus' questioned look. He didn't speak to her yet instead did as the person before him did. After he disappeared in the light, Krystal walked up to her and pointed the ground that he had been.

"There was once a Krazoa shrine entrance there. I don't remember how it disappeared but according to the earlier Lightfoot this was still usable so the shrine was used as a meeting place" Krystal watched as Madeline walked to the spot to study it when she was caught off guard and disappeared from the light too.

Anthony and Adam looked as though she was disintegrated in front of them. The two were now the only ones who had no clue what it actually did. Falco learned it from Slippy so he dragged both of them into the light.

"Xihho, xihho! Sharpclaw adsemadw! (_Hurry, Hurry! Sharpclaw incoming!_)" two Pterodactyls (Samus guessed they were the Cloudrunners) cawed out as they went to the light just like the others.

"Let's get to the others" Krystal stepped aside for Samus to step into the center.

Samus did so and got a quick glimpse of Slippy being surprised by something but what wasn't exactly clear as the light surrounded her. Her expectations of previous times she'd done teleporting made her think there would be a bit of a sick feeling when she got to the other end but there wasn't any. Samus was confused then noticed how the whole room of dinosaurs were staring at Madeline who was confused herself so Samus pretended to understand. It was probably best. Just probably for her sake.

Samus stepped off the colorful circle she was on in time for Krystal to appear. The two joined everyone else they were with in one corner of the room. Anthony seemed cheerful to see Samus once more in a fairly-lighted room full of the different tribes Prince Tricky had told them about (minus the Sharpclaw).

"This is, uh, an experience to… write in a history book" Madeline whispered over to her friends as she managed to get away from the stares of the many dinosaurs.

"Yeah I guess, too bad we'll have to pretend this never happened when we get back home for this place's sake" Anthony made an upset face as he looked around the room.

Anthony walked over to Fox and whispered something Samus couldn't hear. Whatever it was he looked as though he was explaining it making a "T-Rex Arm" sort of arm (he was asking if there were any T-Rexes there). The response from Fox? He whispered something back while using his finger as though he was slicing his throat. It had to be the most random unheard conversation Samus had ever seen from Anthony and now Fox.

"What was that about?" was what Madeline asked him when he came back over to their spot.

"I don't think I should say it out loud here" he answered.

Krystal was about to tell something to them when a chanting in Saurian was echoed across the room.

"Xuac kxo don udt vahjk Sharpclaw mosxudas udt coutoh, Slippy! (_Hail the new and first Sharpclaw mechanic and leader, Slippy!_)" something snarled.

"I'm a what?!"

Madeline looked towards the direction of the noise and laughed at the sight of Slippy being carried in the air by four small T-Rex looking dinosaurs in full armor. Slippy wasn't exactly certain about what they were calling him and was desperate to be put down as he tried several times to escape the grasp of what was the Sharpclaw. There was no support in his struggle from his team for they were standing there either trying not to laugh or a certain person stood there taking pictures of it with Anthony's camera.

"Hey guys help please!" Slippy begged but got none.

"A kxadb kxuk oeih don coutoh fhovohj nucbadw. (_I think your new leader prefers walking_)" Tricky said as he walked from an archway leading to a smaller room.

The Sharpclaws dropped Slippy and followed him as he ran in panic to his friends. Every time he tried to hide behind Fox he moved away due to the fact that he did not get along with the Sharpclaws.

"Je ed nakx kxo mookadw. (_So on with the meeting_)" one Anklyosauris-like dinosaur (Thorntail) cleared his throat.

"Ooj, ooj, mookadw. (_Yes, yes, meeting_)" one Lightfoot wearing a few feathers and paint repeated.

Krystal gave each person of the non-Saurian group a tap on the shoulder for them to stand next to her so she could translate.

"Eih kharo aj uc uchouto toscadoadw rik no nehho veh kxo juvoko ev eih oeidw kxudj ke kxo Jellyclaws! (_Our tribe is in decline already but we worry for the safety of our young thanks to the Jellyclaws!_)" one Hightop exclaimed and giving a stomp that shook the place.

"Battadw ij? No noho ucmejk opkadk rosuijo ev Scales udt kxo Aparoids! (_Kidding us? We were almost extinct because of Scales and the Aparoids!_)" a Sharpclaw exclaimed back.

"No xulo ke vadt nxoho udt Jellyclaw kharo calo udt rhadw zitwmodk veh nxuk kxoo'lo tedo! (_We have to find where the Jellyclaw live and bring judgment for what they've done!_)" was the exclamation from a Wooly Mammoth (Snowhorn).

"Wait one second, I'm sorry to be in the middle of this but I've encountered many of what you call 'Jellyclaws' before and they are going to be impossible for you guys to beat so many. I'm sure you know what they can do by now; drain life energy from any living creature until they're nothing and apparently here they bite too" Samus walked to the middle of the room after hearing the translated part of the conversation.

The different tribe members looked at one another as if there was a silent conversation. A Lightfoot stepped forward during the silence to question her.

"What you mean 'impossible' skin creature?" he said in plain English/Cornerian.

Samus didn't let the shock of him speaking English make her forget what to say. This wasn't the place to be laughed at.

"I know what they're capable of now that I've seen the ones here. Where I come from the Metroid, as we humans call it, are called extinct by my hand. Seems that was wrong. Before they could easily be defeated with ice weaponry and a simple… hit afterward" Samus barely found the right word to describe shooting to the Saurians.

The whole room's attention was on Samus now and it proved to be more pressure on her since she'd never acted like that before. It must've been Adam nodding her on to continue that helped relieve that pressure and continue on. She took one quick breath then went on.

"Because of my encounter with the Metroids or Jellyclaw I now know that their source of almost indestructibility is in fact the fault of the greed of humankind and I plan to fix that fault with the help I can get. There aren't enough facts about their weakness for me to determine the best way to kill them but I have found out that they do bleed when they couldn't before from spears," Samus looked over to some Lightfoots that were holding their spears up in pride, "which makes me believe that this so called 'Aparoid' is also involved in the sudden appearance of Metroids-"

"So they might be vulnerable to the same things as Aparoids" Peppy finished for Samus.

Everyone, including Samus' friends and the Star Fox team, engaged in conversations on the possibility of her theory being true. Prince Tricky listened in to everyone's thoughts while thinking of his own. He made up his mind and walked up to Samus just like the Lightfoot silencing the room again.

"So what is the plan you have? We nearly were wiped out because of the Aparoids and may be because of the Metro-Jellyclaw" Tricky corrected himself on the name for Metroid.

"I don't have much of one. But what if all of your tribes stayed close to one another and give an alarm for your citizens to hide in secured buildings or anything of the like while me, my friends, and the Star Fox team try to find out what we need to know about the threat to counter it" Samus waited for the response as what had to be the tribe leaders, including Tricky, discussing the best options.

It had to be at least three or four minutes until they came to an agreement but it was even more time for them to check with the other fellow tribe members. The time made more pressure on Samus but there was no sign from Adam to relieve it this time. He stood there thinking about what she had come up with for a plan but he never said if he approved or not.

"No'lo semo ke u tosajaed kxuk eih kojk fejjarco melo meo uj nocc ro nxuk oei xulo evvohot ke ij. (_We've come to a decision that our best possible move may as well be what you have offered to us_)" the blue-cloaked Cloudrunner queen announced breaking the silence.

"Av Star Fox khijkj oei, kxod no ned'k zitwo Sauria'j julaehj. (_If Star Fox trusts you, then we won't judge Sauria's saviors_)" a Thorntail completed the statement forgetting Samus only knew English.

"They basically said your plan is good" Tricky beat Krystal for the translation.

Samus expected Tricky to dismiss the meeting just like military men in the Federation did but instead he gave a loud roar then walked off to the circle in the room for dismissal. The other dinosaurs followed behind except the Sharpclaw leaving the place to feel emptier than it felt before.

"Uddeidso eih doh coutoh ke kxo Krazoa! (_Announce our new leader to the Krazoa!_)" the biggest of the four Sharpclaw yelled out pumping his fists in the air.

"Doh coutoh ke kxo Krazoa Chamber! (_New leader to the Krazoa Chamber!_)" the other three chanted as they surrounded Slippy.

"What did they say?!" Slippy looked around frantically to find a way around them.

"They want to announce you as their leader in the chamber where the Krazoa is" Krystal tried to not laugh while she talked but it was hard not to.

"What?! But I don't want to go there! Hey!" Slippy couldn't escape the grasp of the Sharpclaw as they carried him off into the next room away from his friends.

Anthony ran to the archway then turned around with his camera he took back from Falco to show he was following for the pictures. He was definitely going to make copies of that event for everyone whether Slippy agreed to it or not.

"He'll be fine, let's just go so I can get my nap" Falco walked off not even caring if there was going to be a dangerous ritual or not.

"We still have to catch up with Tricky to see what Wolf wanted" Fox corrected following him.

"It better be worth it for all this trouble" Madeline whispered to herself as the remaining people left the shrine room.


End file.
